Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Infants being put on child abuse registry

Many people are falsely put on the state child abuse registries, but you would think that some attempt would be made to eliminate obvious errors. Apparently not. A Nebraska newspaper writes:

In August, Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash sent a question to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

How many youths have been placed on the department's central registry of child abuse and neglect because they are considered offenders?

The answer surprised him, and the ages of some of those youths stunned him further.

Between 1985 and 2013, nine of those placed on the registry were infants. Nine were toddlers, 10 more were preschoolers and nine were kindergarten age.

In total, 128 children 12 and younger and 2,227 aged 13 to 18 were on the registry as of Sept. 15.

"It was unbelievable to me that any child just a few months old can be listed as a perpetrator of an abuse or a crime," Coash said.

He set to work crafting a bill (LB292) that would ensure no child 11 or younger would be put on the registry and that all minors on the registry would get a mandatory hearing to consider expunging the record within six months of turning 19.